enjoying every second of life and running

2010 Chicago Marathon – 3:24:14

Saturday we drove up to our hotel and just relaxed as much as possible, which meant reading magazines and books for us and bone chewing for Coco.

We went to bed super early, 8pm and were up at 3am. We took our time getting ready and made our way to the starting area by 5am. We parked in one of the garages and chilled for about 30 minutes before heading out. We saw a Caribou Coffee shop along the way and stopped in for a coffee and relaxed in the leather chairs. The coffee was way too strong for me, but at least we could relax and utilize the restrooms. As we sat there discussing the race in walks our friends Ryan and Melisa! Completely unplanned and totally awesome, they too just happened to by the coffee shop, walk in and see us! I considered this good luck. 🙂 Melisa was running the race and Ryan was on pit crew duty. We chatted it up and then it was off to our corrals. This was me and Rob’s first time in the seeded corrals and it was very nice!

Walking to the Corral entrance.

They had porta potties right there and the lines weren’t crazy long, much better than open corral that we had last year. Standing aroud means we can get our money’s worth on pictures being taken.

The last hour passed by quickly and then we were off!

How quickly I forget how the amount of people running and their paces picking up and quickly slowing down all around makes it difficult to settle in. Rob was off and quickly swallowed up into the crowd so that I couldn’t see him. I was psyched that the crowd being so thick that it forced me to hold back on pace. The miles started ticking off right according to plan.

Mile 1 – 7:52

Mile 2 – 7:41

Mile 3 – 7:35

Mile 4 – 7:34

Mile 5 – 7:32 (shot of EFS)

Note: A funny sign that just said “This is a sign” hehehe 🙂

Mile 6 – 7:32

Mile 7 – 7:33

Mile 8 – 7:26

Mile 9 – 7:40

Mile 10 – 7:33 (shot of EFS)

Mile 11 – 7:43 (stomach cramping)

Mile 12 – 7:37

Mile 13 – 7:47 (not able to deny that I will need to stop, ugh!)

Mile 14 – 8:56 (Pit stop, so ticked that I have to waste time to take a potty break)

Mile 15 – 7:30 (feel better though)

Mile 16 – 17 – 15:31 (missed a mile marker)

Mile 18 – 7:44 (cant’s seem to get my pace going any faster)

Note: I hear a voice shout “Go Baby!” and it definitely sounds like Rob. I don’t see him, but I wonder if it’s him and I hope it isn’t just because I want him to meet his goal. I notice at some point that the course color system changes from green to yellow status due to increased heat.

Mile 20 – 7:45 (shot of EFS and a few Sports Beans, most fell to the ground)

Mile 21 – 22 – 15:57 (missed another mile marker)

Mile 23 – 24 16:03 (missed another mile marker)

Note: A friend of ours, Leanna, who we haven’t seen in ages, crosses right in front of me carrying her son and I can’t believe I’m able to process that it’s her and actually call out her name and wave midst mile 23. 🙂 Also, we pass a bank that says it’s 89 out and man it felt hot.

Mile 25 – 8:17 (Are we done yet? This is miserable hot.)

Mile 26 and the .2 – 9:30 (7:41 Pace)

Somewhere along the course.

Almost there!

About to finish!

All done!! 😀

Rob and me! 😀

Stats:

3:24:14

7:48 Pace

F 30-34: 86/3,071 (2.8%)

F: 343/16,013 (2.1%)

Overall: 2310/35,809 (6.5%)

So this wasn’t even much of a PR and not what I was hoping to do. But alas, I know what training I need to work on and it still is a new PR. I

think my fueling worked out better and at least my stomach wasn’t in a huge knot the whole race like last year. I’m not happy to have to had lost time taking a potty break, but I guess these things happen. I hope that I can keep getting my stomach used to this. Also I never felt light-headed or out of sorts, so I think the amount of fuel that I took for the race worked out well. I also felt strong. I couldn’t get moving in the pace I wanted, but at the same time, I never felt really beaten down. Hopefully that’s a good sign that I can keep training myself into a faster pace.

Upon finishing I slowly walked through the finishing area and I really notice how hot it is. I ask a lady if it was really 89 degrees out like the bank said and she replied, “yes, we were just told it’s 85”. Not ideal at all.

I shuffled around and ran into Chris and we talked about each of our experiences for a moment. Then I looked around for Rob and eventually found him. Turns out it was him that I heard at mile 18ish. He fell off pace after Mile 15. The good news is that his IT Band injury didn’t flare up on him, instead it was just that he missed some critical training from recovering and just couldn’t put it together today. His fuel did work for him this time, so that’s a huge accomplishment. Rob’s final time was 3:43:11. Even though it’s not the time he wanted, he is definitely one step closer with a fuel strategy that appears to work for him.

We made our way back to the hotel, got some food and a quick nap and then met up with Ryan and Melisa for some post race celebrating. We ended up walking around downtown and stopped at a couple pubs for drinks and food.

The second pub happened to have a statue of a bull and after a couple drinks well….

By the way, Rob is not an innocent bystander in this picture. I was too sore to get up there myself so he gave me a boost. 😉 Security came and we bolted before getting into trouble. 🙂

Another kick ass marathon! I was looking for you but finding people running in that huge race is near impossible!!! I wish you could have seen my signs!!!! Congrats again you speedy freak!!!! you and rob are ammazinggg!!!

Thanks! I wish I could have seen you out there! I realized this year how much time I spend looking at the ground because the roads are so gnarly, too many chances to fall. So good to see you at the expo!!

Congrats on your PR!! Looking at your splits, it seems we had a pretty similar race (though mine was about 20 mins slower 🙂 )-I definitely started to fade in mile 18 but I truly believe it was heat-related and not training-related. I have no doubt if Mother Nature had cooperated, we would have both gotten our “A” goals!

And great move that you got to the corrals early…I’ll elaborate more in my report, but there was such a ridiculous bottleneck by the seeded corral entrance, so by the time I got to my corral they closed the gates and I had to jump the fence to get in there!! Now I know for next time 🙂

Congrats to you as well!! It was a terrible weather day, but we still got out there and another one under the belt. I read your report, loved the detail and good to know to make sure to get there early enough to not be stuck in the bottleneck of the corral entry. Hope recovery is treating you well!

OK so you know what I think and how I feel. Way to tough it out for the PR and please give me best to Rob. His experience was one of many and I hope he does not feel this at all reflects his fitness. His dream race will come to him soon and these tough ones will make the real deal even more sweet.

So awesome to see you (although it felt like it was just a regular old meeting), and we must arrange for a low key race together (well you running way ahead and cheering me across of course).

Stevi, meeting you was like meeting an old friend. I feel like I’ve known you for ages. I think we could have easily chatted the rest of the day away. I’m SO glad we finally got to meet and I look forward to flying over to see you and also racing again in the future. 🙂 I’m so proud of you for joining the marathon ranks! You have accomplished so much this year and just keep growing! Congrats to you and Chris! ***Hugs*** 😀